The 4th edition of the Organic Innovation Days, the annual event of TP Organics, took place in collaboration with the G-STIC 2018 conference in Brussels from 27 to 29 November 2018. The Organic Innovation Days aim to discuss research needs and innovations within and outside the organic sector together with a broad range of stakeholders of the organic sector – from companies and researchers, farmers and farmer organisations to policy makers across Europe. This year, the topics, high-level speakers and fruitful discussions once again generated great interest among the participants. Find here thefinal agenda as PDF.

Day 1 focused on the EU’s next research and innovation framework programme for the period 2021-2027 Horizon Europe and opportunities for organic actors as well as stakeholder-driven research and innovation in this programme. The policy debate shone light on the political priorities for Horizon Europe in the coming years, in particular on how Horizon Europe can strengthen research for organic farming and agroecology. The invited policy makers from the European Commission, France and Germany showed themselves very open to and supportive for organic food and farming. Nathalie Sauze-Vandevyver, Director Quality, Research and Innovation, and Outreach at DG Agriculture, stressed that Horizon Europe should focus on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and organic farming has a role to play in this regard. Dr. Hanns-Christoph Eiden from the German Federal Office for Agriculture and Food acknowledged that organic is a very well defined, sustainable, and competitive food and farming system that already demonstrates the multi-actor approach in action. He added that value chains need to be developed to bring sustainable and organic products to the consumer. Likewise, France has recognised the innovation potential of organic. Philippe Vinçon, Director General for Education and Research at the French ministry for Agriculture and Food, announced that France wants to double its production of organic food. Finally, Hans-Joerg Lutzeyer from DG Research and Innovation spoke about the contribution the organic sector can make to the Food2030 policy initiative while Urs Niggli, director of FiBL, said the organic sector should also have the courage to address its weaknesses, for instance the use of plant protection products in horticulture.

Looking beyond organics, the Scientific Director Agriculture at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), showed during an inspiring speech how a pesticide-free agriculture and agroecology can be achieved. The Executive Director of Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTA) presented fairness in food and farming, and how the organic sector can achieve more synergies with the Fair Trade movement before the workshops in the afternoon kicked off a participatory process engaging all stakeholders in the development of the new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda that TP Organics will publish next year and present at the coming Organic Innovation Days. The well-attended Stakeholder Forum in the evening brought together the members of TP Organics to update them on the acitivities in 2018, and planned activities in 2019, as well as on the Horizon Europe policy process.

The second day of the event started with an interactive presentation by two professors from Wageningen University, Rogier Schulte and Eldert van Henten. When ecology meeting technology, the resulting synergies can foster more sustainable farming solutions, technology becoming an enabler, facilitator, and collaborator. The engaging dialogue was perceived as very inspiring and interesting by the audience.

Also on day 2, the winner of the Call for Organic Innovations, launched by TP Organics likewise for the 4th time, was presented by the jury members Mute Schimpf, Friends of the Earth Europe, and Laurence Beck, Wessanen. The third jury member was Markus Arbenz, former Director of IFOAM – Organics International. The awarded innovation – the agro-technological start-up Polyfly that commercialises hoverflies as alternative, effective and natural pollinators – is advancing the transformation of European food & farming systems based on organic and agroecological principles. The award ceremony took place at the Organic Innovation Days where the winner had the opportunity to present the innovation to the broad audience. The 2 runners-up, Dorothea Lequeux for her self-picking farm Pluk Plek, a transformative social innovation, and Tavseef Mairaj Shah for his contribution “Intercropping legumes with rice” (System of Rice Intensification, SRI – a climate-smart, agro-ecological rice cultivation strategy), were mentioned, too.

The rest of the event was integrated in the agroecology sessions at G-STIC. Urs Niggli, Director of FiBL and member of TP Organics’ Steering Committee, modereated High-level dialogue on policy action. Two of TP Organics’ speakers of the “Implementing agroecology technologies & innovations at scale” session on day 3 are part of the Internet of Food and Farm (IoF). The session showcased weeding robots (Steketee, The Netherlands) and remote monitoring of grazing cows (Sensolus, Belgium) as well as biodegradable plastics for organic farming/ Novamont (Italy). TP Organics put forward its goals during the panel discussion that explored pathways for transformational change in agriculture through agroecology.

Below, you find all the presentations for the Organic Innovation Days 2018.

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